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CITY OF HAMMOND. 

LAKE COUNTY, IND., AND VICINITY. 

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HA M M O N D 



INDIANA 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL 
AND RAILROAD CENTER 

OFFICIAL PROSPECTUS, COMPILED AND PUB- 
LISHED BY ALFRED GORDON, Room 509, 115 Dear- 
born St.. CHICAGO, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
HAMMOND CITY COUNCIL, BOARD OF TRADE, 
COMMERCIAL CLUB, COMMERCIAL BANK, FIRST 
NATIONAL BANK, LAKE COUNTY SAVINGS AND 
TRUST COMPANY, BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION 

MDCCCCIII 

WITH SIXTY-SIX ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND COMPLETE RAILROAD AND STREET CAR 
MAP. COVER SPECIALLY DESIGNED AND 
MODELED AT THE ART INSTITUTE,,. Clily^GO 

5 5 • 

Copyright, 1903, o • 

BY ALFRED GORDON / ' 7 " / 

[AH Rights Reserved] i • <i^» «,> 

PRICE FIFTY CENTS 




CONKEY COMPANY. PRINTERS, HAMMOND. INDIANA 




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HOHMAN STREET (Business Section) 
Twenty Years Ago and To-day 



HAMMOND AND THE CALUMET 



In selecting words for the expression of his ideas, the North American 
Indian, wild child of nature, always fits the sound to the sense. He 
has given us "Calumet," meaning the pipe of peace, and there is some- 
thing in the sound, as it falls upon the ear, which suggests the soothing 
and peaceful, a meaning the Indian intended. 

in the northern Indiana land, through which flows the broad and 
quiet river to meet the waters of the lake, lies the region of the Calumet. 
Do you ask if the name be apt.'' Take station in Hammond, the center 
of this river region, and look about. Everywhere you see towering 
skyward great chimneys, smoke-wreathed from the fires below. They 
are in number a multitude — the Calumets of the white man, the peace- 
pipes of industry. 

Aye, the Calumets of tlie white man, the peace-pipes of industry! 
But the sound does not soothe the senses ; for civilization conquered the 
savage ; old things are passed away, and the peace of the twentieth 
century does not mean quietude. These great chimneys, towering sky- 
ward, belch forth their "pillars of cloud by day and their pillars of fire 
by night" to mark the march of industry ; and the noise and din of its 
travailing are ceaseless. " Men of thought, men of action " are busily 
clearing the way ; and the sturdy hosts of enterprise lead the van. Here, 
now, "each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close ; 
something attempted, something done." Here " life is real, life is earnest," 
and men "act — act in the living present!" Tubal Cain and Vulcan 
would rejoice and glorify could they but hear this grim music of steam- 
whistles and trip-hammers, and clattering freight trains, and everlasting 
clangor of rattling metals incessantly in the air. Reality is camped on 
the field of romance ; and this practical people interpret the poets literally, 
materialize their dreams, and coin their grand conceptions into usefulness 
that benefits mankind. 

The Calumet has been the cynosure of the industrial world for a 
decade. More industries have been located here than in any other spot 
in the United States in the same period of time, and the increase of popu- 
lation in the city of Hammond, the hub of the industrial wheel of the 
district, is the marvel of census statisticians. 



UNIQUE RAILROAD CENTER 



Ruhbin<T elbows with Chicago, as its nearest neighbor, this city of 
northern Indiana is to-day shouldering a large part of the industrial 
burden which has become too great for the Illinois metropolis. 

Hammond has been called the most concentrated railroad center in 
the world, and it is so. With more railways within its corporate limits 
than any other city on the face of the globe, save Chicago, Hammond has 
the entire railroad system within an area of some seven square miles. 
These consist of seventeen different roads— ten great trunk lines and 
seven belt lines. It is hardly necessary to point out what this means to 
the interests of the manufacturer. 

It means that the Hammond manufacturer has a six hours' start of 
his competitor in Chicago. In other words, goods sent from Chicago 
must be on board the cars at noon on the day they are to be shipped, 
but those from Hammond are already six hours towards their destination. 
Freight rates to all sections of the country are the same from Hammynd 
or Chicago. Cartage does not enter into the manufacturers' expenses. 
He loads and receives his commodities upon and from the cars at the very 
platform of his plant. There is no point on the continent which he 
can not reach by a rail line from his own doorstep. 

The following railroads serve the Hammond manufacturer and busi- 
ness man : The Baltimore & Ohio, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, 
the Pittsburg & Fort Wayne, the Michigan Central, the Pere Marquette, 
the Wabash, the Monon, the Nickel Plate, the Chicago & Erie, the Cin- 
cinnati, Richmond & Muncie, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, the Chicago 
Terminal Transfer, the Chicago Junction Railway Company, the Chicago 
& Western Indiana, the Chicago, Lake Shore & Eastern, the East Chicago 
Belt railroad and the State Line & Indiana City railroad. 

Electric lines in operation and doing their share of the passenger 
business are the South Chicago City Railway Company and the Ham- 
mond, Whiting & East Chicago Electric Railway Company. Within one 
year Cincinnati and Chicago will be connected by an electric trolley road 
which will pass through Hammond. 

Side by side with its unsurpassed railroad facilities are the advan- 
tages which this region holds for purposes of lake commerce. It is a 
matter of record that every government engineer officer who has made a 
study of the subject, has declared that the best natural harbors of northern 
Indiana and the Chicago region of northern Illinois lie wholly within the 




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HAMMOND'S INLAND HARBORS 



district of the Calumet. It is a fact, acknowledged even by the men 
whose properties lie on its banks, that the Chicago river is no longer a 
fit harbor for the great vessels that ply the lakes. 

For years the commerce has been drifting steadily to the southward 
and the eastward. To-day the only harbors into which the grain and ore- 
bearing vessels of greatest draught may enter are those within this 
section. At South Chicago the United States government has spent 
millions for dredging the Calumet river and constructing a harbor. The 
government funds available for deepening the river were used wisely, 
and the improvement of the navigable channel of the Calumet was carried 
to a point one-half mile to the east of Hammond, a distance of fourteen 
miles by way of the river from the waters of Lake Michigan. 

At Indiana Harbor, the East Chicago Company has a canal under 
construction, which is to connect the harbor with the Calumet river at 
the point where the government engineers ceased their work. The 
completion of the canal, work upon which is being rapidly pushed, 
will make an island of the entire Calumet region, the surrounding river 
and canal waters being 200 feet wide and 21 feet deep, sufficient to float 
the largest steamer that ever breasted the waves of Lake Michigan. 

This waterway consists simply of the East Chicago canal and the 
Grand Calumet river. The course it follows is from the harbor, south to the 
river and thence along the stream to South Chicago. Hammond, however, 
has another entrance to the lake, between which and the city proper 
connection will be made within a short time. This means of communi- 
cation with Lake Michigan will be as deep as the canal and river and will 
have the advantage of being direct and short. Private enterprise, backed 
by sufficient funds, is at this moment engaged in constructing a harbor at 
the mouth of Wolf lake, within the corporate limits of Hammond. It is 
the intention to make a channel through this lake from north to south 
and thence to the Grand Calumet in the heart of the city of Hammond. 
Still another channel will run directly east from Wolf lake, through Lake 
George, to a junction with the East Chicago canal. 

It will take but a glance at the map accompanying this little volume 
to show that this Calumet region soon will have upon Lake Michigan 
three magnificent harbors, distant from one another only little more than 
three miles. Let the eye wander back from the line of the lake shore 
and it will see that within this island region, which contains about forty 



A PAGE FROM HISTORY 



square milfS, shortly there will be twenty miles of navigable waters con- 
necting at different points with Wolf and George lakes. The lakes 
themselves will form great inland harbors, affording practically fifty-five 
miles of dock frontage. 

It was more than a century ago that the government sent Jefferson 
Davis, who was then a young engineer officer, to the southern shore of 
Lake Michigan to locate an adequate harbor. The government emissary, 
with his little following, tramped along the shore line and examined every 
inlet with painstaking care. He reached the mouth of Wolf lake and 
there stopped, and turning to his men said, "This is the natural harbor 
of southern Lake Michigan." Lieutenant Davis stayed for some time 
at Wolf lake. He mapped the locality and drew up a report upon its 
practicability fur future interlake commercial purposes. At that time 
Wolf lake needed but little improving to make it available as a harbor 
for shipping ; but the engineer heard that a few miles to the northwest 
some white men were living. He pushed along the lake shore and finally 
reached the mouth of the Chicago river. There he found a French- 
Canadian trader and his pretty daughter. The engineer fell in love. 
Cupid is notoriously blind, and so it was that the young soldier of Uncle 
Sam's engineering corps failed to see that the Chicago river was not a fit 
place for a harbor. Cupid, in this case, at least, proved forgetful as well 
as blind, and the natural advantages of Wolf lake passed from the officer's 
memory, and the Chicago river was recommended as a proper site for a 
fort, "because of the good harbor facilities, which may be bettered in the 
future." This is not romance, but history. 

The whirligig of time brings changes, however, and it is not much 
more than passing strange that the lapse of a century should see other 
engineer officers making official reports that the Calumet region is much 
more blest in natural harbor advantages than is the district which 
embraces the great city a few miles removed. Love is as b'lind to-day as 
he was in 1795, but the keenness of vision of the engineer officer, when 
not blinded by woman's beauty, is unimpaired. 

The benefits to be derived from the great drainage canal, connecting 
the lakes with the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers and the Gulf of 
Mexico, will be a factor in the prosperity of the Calumet region. The 
territory to be included within the sanitary and, as it is eventually to be, 
ship-canal district is being gradually extended. A bill now pending in 




TOWLE OPERA HOUSE 
Finest Theater in Northern Indiana— Seating Capacity 1,500 



THE MANUFACTURERS PARADISE 



congress, introduced by Congressman Mann, provides for a connection 
between the main canal channel and the forks of the Calumet river. 
There is every prospect for the success of the measure, and the day is 
not distant when this Calumet district will have the advantages of a 
commercial waterway extending to the regions of the south. 

What of the towns within this Calumet section ? We have the city 
of Hammond, with its 20,000 inhabitants, as the central and potential 
industrial factor, and about it and sharing its life and prosperity (the 
result of exceptional advantages of natural location) are Irondale, Hege- 
wisch, Burnham, West Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting, and Indiana 
Harbor. Within these cities and towns there is a population of 50,000 
people. Industries are everywhere. The great factories, pulsing with 
activity, employ thousands of men. The plants are situated, almost 
without exception, upon the rivers, lakes and canals, and about them, in 
every direction, run the tracks of the great trunk railroad lines of the 
country. 

Ere many years this section, so favored by nature, will contain the 
largest city of Indiana. It is here that the people of Hammond and of the 
country round and about wish the manufacturer, with his following of 
labor, to come, to locate and to prosper. Sites free of charge are offered 
capital upon which to locate factories. The men of Hammond, who look 
unerringly into the future, are willing to do everything within the limit 
of reason to encourage the establishment of new industries within the 
territory where their interests lie. 

This region of the Calumet is just such a place as should lie next 
the heart of the manufacturer. Here converge a multitude of railroad 
lines ; here come the largest of the lake carriers ; here may be obtained 
cheaply, copper, iron and lumber from Michigan, soft coal from Indiana 
and Illinois, oil and anthracite from Pennsylvania, oil and natural gas 
from Ohio and from the home state from wells almost at the door-step of 
the consumer. 

In addition to free sites, Hammond stands ready, by means of its 
excellent water service, to furnish the manufacturer all the water he 
needs at the cost-price of pumping, a fraction over two cents a thousand 
gallons. For power and light the manufacturer may have, at prices as 
low as elsewhere, either electricity or gas. The Commercial Club of 
Hammond considers it a pleasurable duty to look after the interests of 



HAMMOND'S GIANT GROWTH 



people who will come and remain permanently in the territory between 
the Grand Calumet and Lake IWichitran. 

Hammond is not only the home of the workshop, but it is in the 
truest and highest sense the home of the workman. Here are no squalid 
tenements, with impure air and badly lighted courts; but in their place 
are homes with their bits of land and their gardens of flowers, owned by 
the toilers. "Where a man's home is, there shall his heart be," is a 
lesson that the employers of Hammond have learned to the advantage of 
themselves and of those without whose aid their own labor would come to 
naught. On this abundance of land rests the problem of industrial 
economics. There is so much room in this Calumet district that manu- 
facturers may build long, broad, low structures. This gives plenty of air 
and light, and helps to conserve the power, which in sky-scraping struc- 
tures goes into the hoisting of materials. The same abundance of land 
enables the laborer to have his own home. This is the one great factor 
in reducing labor troubles in the Calumet region to a minimum. These 
conditions contribute to the general heahh of the community. 

The health report of the state of Indiana shows that unsanitary 
conditions are practically unknown in the land belt which includes the 
Calumet region. The soil is composed of sand to the depth of about 
twenty feet, where clay is struck. This insures absolutely perfect drain- 
age, perfect filtering, and healthy conditions of ground and atmosphere, 
and mud is unknown. The streets of the towns and cities are macadam- 
ized, and beyond the municipalities' limits are 253 miles of stone roads, 
which are easii> maintained, and which relieves winter and spring driving 
of the unpleasant features so often its accompaniment in many parts of 
the country. 

in the city of Hammond there are 20,000 people, which is only 3,000 
less than there were in the whole of Lake county a little more than ten 
years ago. Now, the county contains 53,000 inhabitants, 27,000 of whom 
are in North township. The growth has been due solely and simply to 
the great natural advantages of this section for manufacturing purposes. 

Hammond adjoins an agricultural district. Its food comes in fresh 
supply daily from the garden spot which lies just outside its walls. Its fruit 
and its vegetables are hours fresher (if the expression may be used) than 
are the garden commodities which find their way to the tables of Chicago 
via the railroads, the South Water street markets and the retail shops. 



A CITY OF HOMES 



The city of Hammond believes in education. There is no finer public 
school system to be found in the country than that under the control of 
this Indiana municipality. School buildings are handsome and .well 
appointed and the teaching staff is composed of earnest, conscientious and 
highly trained instructors. 

There are churches of every denomination. There are three theaters; 
the newly erected one ranks among the handsomest houses of amusement 
in the West. The parks are beautiful, with their combination of land and 
water effects, made possible by the river, Wolf lake and Lake Michigan. 
To put it briefly and truthfully, this city of the Calumet has all the advan- 
tages of its sister city of Chicago, with none of the disadvantages 
attendant upon life in a crowded metropolis. Hammond is essentially a 
city of homes. There are fine residences with their surroundings of trees 
and grounds within the city proper, and beyond, in the suburbs, are hun- 
dreds of ideal dwelling-places. Homewood, with its broad avenues, parks, 
trees, churches and schools, is a residence district that appeals to the man 
who understands the full significance of the word home. 

Hammond's business center, where stand the houses of mart and 
trade, is substantially and handsomely built. The office buildings are thor- 
oughly modern, and the stores are on a par in appearance and in stock 
with those of the great cities of the country. 

There has just been completed the Superior Court building of Lake 
county. It is a stone structure of imposing appearance and beautiful 
architectural design. A new federal building to house the government 
offices and United States district court, is to be erected. The appropri- 
ation for the purpose, $160,000, is already available. The building will 
be erected upon a commanding site. 

If there be those who are loath to remove themselves too far from a 
great city, let it be known that Hammond is within forty-five minutes' 
ride of the heart of Chicago at the present time, and that before the 
summer season wanes there will be twenty suburban passenger trains a 
day making the journey in thirty-eight minutes. 

Hammond and the Calumet region are natural locations for industry. 
Hammond invites comparison and investigation to the fullest extent. 
The more thorough the investigation, the surer will be the conviction 
that its position is beyond comparison, its advantages and inducements 
unequaled. 




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HAMMOND A CENTER OE TRANSPORTATION 



Hammond, Ind., is tlie railroad hub of the American continent, 
with seventeen well defined spokes, converging within an area of seven 
square miles. 

Hammond has the lowest freight tariffs in existence, viz., Chicago 
rates, and with the added advantage, as has been alluded to before, of 
less delay in transportation. 

The four main belt lines completely encircle Chicago, directly con- 
necting with every railroad entering that city. The minor belt lines are 
confined to the Calumet region. Each of the eleven trunk lines crosses and 
recrosses the Calumet river and has extensive sidings and switching on 
its banks. Several of the trunk lines and the four main belt lines have 
extensive connections and yards adjoining the Chicago river. All of the 
trunk and belt lines of Hammond have yards, switches, spurs and tracks 
connecting them with each other and extending to the various industries 
and industrial sites. The four main belt line systems have more than 
800 miles of trackage. 

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern road, with its 200 miles of tracks, 
traverses twenty-five miles of the lake shore in Indiana. It makes a wide 
detour around Chicago, at an average of thirty miles from its center. It 
touches Waukegan, 111., on the north. West Chicago and Aurora on the 
west, and Joliet, Coal City and the Indiana lake shore on the south. It 
intercepts every road that enters Chicago. 

The Chicago Junction railway lies within the circle of the inner belt 
line. It webs the Calumet river country in every direction, touching 
South Chicago, Hammond, Whiting, and reaching to the stock yards 
district. 

The Chicago Terminal Transfer railroad, from Mayfair on the north, 
extends south through Maywood, McCook, Blue Island, to Chicago 
Heights. It also runs south from Twelfth street to Blue Island, skirts the 
Calumet river region, and reaches East Chicago and Hammond. The 
Chicago Terminal Transfer railroad is one of the important factors in the 
development of Hammond and its surrounding country. The present 
administration is active in efforts toward the furtherance of all plans that 
will contribute to the mutual interest of the Terminal property and its 
patrons. Their expansion and the growth of the property, it is properly 
recognized, must be along lines that are helpful to each other. No other 



RAILROADS AND THEIR MILEAGE 



company exerts itself more to develop the growth of the section it 
traverses. Inquiries about locations for new industries should be addressed 
to W. B. Barr, general freight and passenger agent, 300 Grand Central 
passenger station, Chicago. 

The Chicago & Western Indiana, or inner belt line, reaches especially 
to the stock yards district and the Calumet regions. 

The figures showing the mileage of the principal trunk roads which 
enter Hammond will give an idea of the vast territory covered by these 
prime promoters of interstate and international commerce: 

MILES 

Baltimore & Ohio, 5,357 

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, . . . . 1,413 

Pittsburg & Fort Wayne (Penn. N. W. system), - - - 1,262 

Michigan Central, ------- 1,658 

Waba^sh, 2,484 

Monon, ..-...-- 537 

Nickel Plate, 523 

Chicago & Erie, 2,587 

Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie, ----- 161 

Pere Marquette, .--.--- 1,782 

Total, 17,764 

Hammond, Whiting & East Chicago Electric Railway Company. — This 
company is operating twenty-five miles of railroad in what is known as 
North township, which comprises Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting and 
Roby. It is an electric road, as. its title indicates. By virtue of a running 
arrangement with the South Chicago City Railway Company, it runs 
through cars from Hammond, via Roby and South Chicago, to Sixty-third 
street and Madison avenue, in Chicago, where connection is made with 
the Chicago City railway, the "Alley L" railroad and the Illinois Central 
railroad, thereby delivering passengers to the heart of the city of Chicago. 
By like arrangement it also runs through cars from Whiting, via Roby 
and South Chicago, to Sixty-third street and Madison avenue. It also 
runs cars from Hammond, via East Chicago, to Whiting. The operation 
of the line has caused a great reduction in fares on the steam railroads 
between Hammond and Chicago, and has afforded the citizens of Hammond 
an opportunity of reaching the heart of Chicago, via the Hammond, 
Whiting & East Chicago Electric railway, upon the payment of fifteen 
cents, as against the former railroad fare of seventy-five cents for a single 
trip. 



INDUSTRIES OF HAMMOND 



W. B. Conkey Company. — Among the industries that have been 
attracted to Hammond, owing to its unsurpassed shipping advantages, 
the printing and book-manufacturing plant of the W. B, Conkey Company 
'\> f<i<ile princejis ; and one of the best arguments in favor of the Calumet 
region is the presence of this mammoth industry, the largest and best 
equipped of its kind in the world. When the plant was erected, some 
five years ago, it was a distinct departure from the ordinary method of 
construction, but since then several manufacturers in different parts of the 
United States and Europe have adopted a similar plan. One huge build- 
ing, covering five acres, one story in height, the roof being similar in 
form to a long row of greenhouses, all the light entering from the north — 
this gives only a bird's-eye-view idea of the first structure of its kind in 
the world. Perfection, however, has been attained in everything. For, 
in addition to perfect light, there is a perfect system of ventilation and 
heating. The entire system of machinery is operated by electricity, and 
not a belt or pulley is to be seen. All departments being on one floor 
naturally facilitates the business of the works, and consequently the 2,000 
employes are like a trained army, moving with regular and clock-like 
precision. Situated at the south limits of the city, and accessible by a 
direct street-car line to the very door of the institution, the Conkey plant 
has been made ideal by the beautiful park, with its lawns, lakes and 
flowers, which entirely surrounds it. The W. B. Conkey Company has 
taken a long step in the direction of that union of art and industry to 
which modern social reform is tending. 

Simplex Railway Appliance Company. — The Simplex Railway 
Appliance Company comprises one of the most valuable plants in the 
C alumet region, occupying eight acres of ground, with 400 feet of dock 
frontage upon the banks of the Grand Calumet river. It is located on the 
Michigan Central railroad, Chicago Junction, the Monon and the E. J. & E, 
The buildings cover four acres of ground. The company has been 
1 )cated in Hammond five years, and is engaged in the manufacture of 
steel truck and body bolsters and brake beams for freight cars and loco- 
motives. The company received last year about 40,000 tons of steel and 
malleable iron, and shipped out a like amount, involving the handling of 
4,000 car-loads of material. The company employs 350 men, represent- 
ing the best-paid labor in Hammond. The annual business of the company 




W. H. GOSTLIN RESIDENCE 

THOMAS HAMMOND RESIDENCE 

F. R. MOTT RESIDENCE RICHARD M 

JOHN H. GILLETTE RESIDENCE 

SCENES IN HOMEWOOD, HAMMOND'S FAMOUS SUBURB, 1^ 




M M. TOWLE RESIDENCE 
Webb Street WALTER H. HAMMOND 

; RESIDENCE 

E MINUTES' WALK FROM THE BUSINESS CENTER 



LAWRENCE COX RESIDENCE 

Webb Street WALTER H. HAMMOND RESIDENCE 

W. H HERSHMAN RESIDENCE 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 



is from $2,500,000 to $3,000,000. In the fall of last year a branch plant 
was located at Montreal to take care of the company's Canadian 
business. 

Hammond Illuminating Company. — Many municipal improvements 
are being pushed through with skill and rapidity in Hammond, and chief 
among them is the work that is being done by the Hammond Illuminating 
Company. Perfect lighting is one of the chief concerns to a community, 
and the reorganization of the Hammond Illuminating Company has given 
promise of this, a promise which is being quickly carried to fulfilment. The 
company owns both the gas and electric works, and is spending over a 
quarter of a million dollars on their improvement. The company supplies 
a l.irge portion of the Calumet region in addition to Hammond, and is 
enlarging both the electric light plant and the gas works in order to be 
able to cover thoroughly Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting and Indiana 
Harbor. The new machinery being installed is of the latest improved 
type. The new building, 40x70 feet in dimensions, contains gas-making 
machinery, boilers, and the necessary compressors and pumps for operat- 
ing a gas plant. Chief among the new improvements is a 400-horse- 
power compound condensing engine, of the Westinghouse type, driven 
by two 72-inch by 18 feet high-pressure boilers, carrying 150 pounds of 
steam ; also two 200 " K. W." generators, one being used for the new arc 
system and incandescent lighting of Hammond, the other for day-power 
circuit. There will be an installation of new switch-boards throughout; 
the old arcs are to be removed, and installed in their places will be a new 
lamp -the inclosed or series arc system. This departure will cost over 
$50,000. A 300,000-foot '' holder," costing $31,000, is one of the many 
additions to the gas works. In order to increase the capacity of the gas- 
plant, two more benches of sixes are being built. In all, the capacity of 
the gas plant will be 600,000 feet per day. The company is now engaged 
in putting under ground thirty-two miles of gas main, covering the out- 
side towns and the unpiped portion of Hammond. All the gas will be 
made at the Hammond station and driven by compressors to the three 
adjoining towns. The main office is at Hammond. The original company 
was organized in 1901. The plant was purchased by C. H. Geist Novem- 
ber 1, 1902, the present officers being C. H. Geist, president; R. C. Dawes, 
vice-president, and Henry C. Wood, secretary. J. P. Johnston, the man- 
ager, is one of the oldest and most experienced gas men in the country. 




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WORLD FAMOUS INDUSTRIES 



G. H. Hammond Company. — The G. H. Hammond Company has been 
one of the mainstays of Hammond since 1869, when it was started as a 
co-partnership concern by George H. Hammond, Marcus M. Towle and 
C. Ives. The great packing and slaughter houses now cover thirty acres 
of land, involving an annual business of $50,000,000. The company 
slaughters annually 350,000 cattle, 350,000 hogs and 400,000 sheep. 
There are over 2,000 employes. 

Hammond Elevator Company.— The establishment of the Hammond 
Elevator Company and the completion of the company's first elevator is 
another sign of the faith placed by capitalists in the future of the northern 
Indiana metropolis. The large elevator on the banks of the Grand Calu- 
met river is a landmark, pointing out the future route of commerce, via 
the Calumet and Wolf lake harbor to Lake Michigan. The company was 
organized in December, 1902. At present the elevator has sixteen tanks 
with a capacity of 500,000 bushels. Sixteen additional tanks are 
being built, which will make the capacity 1,000,000 bushels. The ele- 
vator is 130 feet in height, and is equipped with two Howes oat clippers, 
with a capacity of 1,500 bushels an hour each. The elevator has a trans- 
fer capacity of fifty cars a day. It is by far the largest elevator in the 
state, and the machinery throughout is of the latest and most approved 
type. Its location, on the Michigan Central, the Chicago Junction and 
Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroads and its dock frontage on the north bank 
of the Calumet river, makes it one of the most advantageously placed 
plants in Hammond. 

United States Locomotive Corporation. — (Successors to Torbert & 
Peckham.) The business of this company consists of the manufacture 
and rebuilding of locomotives, cars, steam shovels and general railroad 
equipment. The plant occupies about fourteen acres of ground, upon 
which are located the main erecting and machine shop, 300x160 feet, 
with complete boiler shop, iron and blast foundries, blacksmithing shop, 
woodworking and paint shop, store house, pattern shop, etc. The works 
are fully equipped with the most modern and up-to-date tools and work- 
ing machinery throughout all departments, and have a complete electric 
lighting plant and compressed air plant, which enables the company to 
use air tools extensively. The works are located upon three belt lines, 
connecting with all the railroads entering Chicago and Hammond, afford- 
ing perfect and independent shipping facilities. 



MONON DEAL CONSUMMATED 



Chicago Steel Manufacturing Company. — This company occupies 
tliirty acres, the buildings covering ten acres. The annual business is 
$1,000,000. The products are high carbon, Bessemer, open hearth 
and crucible steel plates, cut steel and iron nails, shovels, spades and 
scoops, crucible steel- rubber padded horseshoes and steel fence posts. 
There are 250 employes. The works are located on the Pennsylvania, 
the Michigan Central, the Monon, the C. J. and the E. J. & E. railroads. 

Mackie Steel Tube Company. — This company occupies three acres of 
land, the plant being located on the Michigan Central, Monon and 
Chicago Junction railways. The capacity is forty tons per day. The 
company manufactures steel conduit pipe, used for fire-proof insulating of 
electrical wires in buildings, bedstead tubing and metal specialties. 
Employment is given to 100 men. 

Hammond Distilling Company. — This company owns six acres of 
land, the buildings covering one and one-half acres, and being the 
most modern and up-to-date in the United States. The plant is advan- 
tageously located on the Chicago Junction and Michigan Central railroads 
and the Grand Calumet river. It was established December 12, 1902. 
The annual business is now over $6,000,000. The capacity of the plant 
is 25,000 gallons a day. 

Hammond Lumber Company. — This company occupies ten acres of 
land, the buildings covering one and one-half acres. Four million feet of 
lumber is carried in stock, and 6,000,000 feet sold annually. A large 
planing mill is in connection with the yards. The company was organ- 
ized in 1891, and is one of the largest in the district. 

Hammond Boiler Works. — The specialties of this plant are high-grade 
boilers, stand pipes, stacks, both guyed and self-supporting, and structural 
iron work. The business was started one year ago, and is now one of 
the prosperous concerns of Hammond. 

Other important industries in Hammond are the Cincinnati & Ham- 
mond Spring Company, the Champion Potato Machinery Company, the 
Paxton Lumber Company and the Indiana Starch Company. 

Projected Enterprises. — The yards and shops of the Monon railroad 
will be located in Hammond on a large tract of land south of the Conkey 
plant, which was bought at about $500 per acre. 

The Hammond Pipe Line Service Company will shortly put up 
buildings for manufacturing refrigerating gas. 




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BANKS OF HAMMOND 



The banks of Hammond have kept abreast with the general growth 
of the city ; they are controlled and managed by progressive, yet con- 
servative men. Their official personnel is composed of the leading men 
of Hammond, men who have watched and fostered the city's develop- 
ment from its infancy. 

The Commercial Bank, with its capital of $100,000, and surplus and 
undivided profits of $50,000, is a strong and well-managed institution, 
which has, in connection with its commercial business, a savings depart- 
ment and a well-appointed safety deposit vault, thereby being splendidly 
equipped to give its large patronage the best of service. The following are 
the officers: Thomas Hammond, president; J. A. Ostrom, vice-president; 
John W. Dyer, cashier; directors, K. H. Bell, Adam R. Ebert, John W. 
Dyer, E. Chapman, Thomas Hammond, J. P. Lyman, J. A. Ostrom, J. D. 
Standish, W. P. Jenkins. 

The First National Bank has a capital of $50,000, with $50,000 
of surplus and undivided profits. It is located on the best corner in the 
citv and has one of the best equipped banking rooms in the state. The 
institution is owned by local capital entirely, and is managed by men 
who are fully alive to the demands of its large patronage. The increase 
in deposits in the past one and one-half years from $200,000 to nearly the 
half million mark is the best evidence of the confidence the commu- 
nity has in its management. The following are its officers: A. Murray 
Turner, president; E. C. Minas, vice-president; W. C. Belman, cashier; 
directors, A. M. Turner, E. C. Minas, Peter W. Meyn, W. C. Belman, 
W. F. Mashino. 

The Lake County Savings and Trust Company was organized Janu- 
ary 1, 1903, with a capital of $50,000. It has already demonstrated its 
usefulness to the community, and provides a place for an army of labor- 
ing people to lay aside a portion of their earnings in small sums at a time. 
It has the largest insurance business of any office in the northern portion 
of Indiana, and with its 300 safety deposit boxes and its convenient and 
handsome rooms, it has proven to be a valuable addition to the city of 
Hammond. The following are its officers: Peter W. Meyn, president 
and manager; Frank Hess, vice-president; W. C. Belman, secretary- 
treasurer; directors, Peter W. Meyn, Frank Hess, J. N. Beckman, A. M. 
Turner, E. C. Minas, E. Ullrich, W. C. Belman. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF HAMMOND 



In no interest lus Hammond made such marvelous growth as in her 
public schools. In eighteen years tliey have risen from four teachers to 
sixty-five; from a little old frame building on cedar posts to eight build- 
ings, six of which are brick with stone foundations. 

The following figures give some idea of the growth of Hammond: 

In 1884 the enumeration shows 599 children of school age. In 1894 
the enumeration was 2,325, while in May, 1902, it was 4,523. In May, 1900, 
the enumeration showed a gain of seven per cent.; in May, 1901, a gain of 
eight per cent.; in May, 1902, a gain of sixteen per cent. 

The Lincoln building was put up in 1887 at a cost of $15,000. 
Riverside, on Calumet avenue near th-e river, was built in 1891 at a cost 
of $16,000. The Central building, on the corner of Hohmanand Fayette 
streets, was built in 1893 at a cost of $51,000. The Lafayette building, on 
the corner of Calumet avenue and Sibley street, was put up in 1898 at a 
cost of $18,000. The Washington school, on Williams street, was erected in 
1900 at a cost of $21,000. The Franklin building, just completed, is in 
the Robertsdale division of Hammond, almost within a stone's throw of 
Lake Michigan. This building, though containing but eight school 
rooms, IS by far the best in point of neatness and workmanship of any in 
the city. It was built at a cost of $30,000. In estimating the cost of these 
buildings the grounds have not been considered. These grounds, with 
the exception of the Franklin and Washington sites, have been graded 
and sodded. From the time that spring opens to the falling of the leaves, 
the lawns present a beautiful appearance, decorated as they are with 
floral designs. The Board of Education is now taking steps toward the 
grading and ornamenta' ion of the grounds belonging to the other buildings, 
so that before this summer is over, all the school buildings and grounds 
of Hammond will be made attractive. 

Manual training has not yet been established in all the grades, but 
from present indications the time is not far distant when Hammond will 
be considered thoroughly up to date in that respect. A mass meeting of 
the citizens and teachers was held March 5th for the purpose of discussing 
the advisability of introducing manual training in connection with all the 
grades, and the plan received enthusiastic support. The city supports 
six free kinderirartens. 




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REAL ESTATE IN HAMMOND 



Few fields offer richer opportunities for investment or speculation 
than the city of Hammond ; for, notwithstandin,- the rapid progress the 
cHy has made in late years, doubling its population several t.mes m the 
ast decade, desirable vacant and improved property may be had a com- 
pat ively ow figures. That purchases should prove profitable w.tlr.n a 
h rtLe would seem apparent by looking back ^^t the h.soryo Ham- 
mond and scanning the records of real-estate transfers w.thm the past year=. 
The original town of Hammond was laid out by Marcus M. Towle and 
James N. Young, in 1884. Lots of SO-foot front were then sold at from 

$100 to $150 apiece. 

The following facts speak for themselves: 

In 89 Mrs. Mary Schutz purchased the lot on the northeast corner 
of Fayette and Hohman streets for $150 on the monthly P^y™™' P^"^ 
She sold the same, without improvements, one year ago, to S.dmon 

''^"fn Is^l Augu;t Payiunk purchased from M. M. Towle for $150 the 
lot on which the Commercial Bank now stands. Five years later (m 1890) 
he sold it to K. H. Bell for $10,000. .u c- + 

The orner lot on Sibley and Hohman streets, where the First 
National Bank now stands, was purchased in 1884 by Mrs EH. TaP^e 
for $150 Two years ago it was improved by a $30,000 building, ana 
an ofler of $47,500, recently made to Anton H. Tapper, the present owner, 

"'' tIo Tolwing are the most important realty transactions in the last 
two vears most of them made by Gostlin, Meyn & Co.: 
'" ^w 50 foot lots at the corner of Russell and South Hohman streets 
for a hotel building ; consideration $7,000; five acres on the Calumet 
e tot Hamniond Elevator Company, $3,000; t-nty acres, wh 
hnildinas to the United States Locomotive Works, for $16,000, seven 
' n„ the cllumet river to the Hammond Distilling Company, for 
;ro"oO ;S-foonronVayette and Hohman -eets to Sidmon McHie, 
1 <ti9=;on- one 25-foot lot at Calumet avenue and State street to 
Si^ln McHi:,l3,000;°s,x 50-foot lots on Oa^-eyaven-e State stre. 
and Plummer avenue, to the U. S. government for Federal buildm 
$,9,500; three lots to the Lake county commissioners, for Superior 
Court building, $5,500. 




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READS LIKE ROMANCE 



Seventy-five feet on West State, near Hohman, to A. M. Turner, 
Jt-rry Brennan and Joseph Wise, for $13,000, 

Ten acres on South Hohman street, near Conkey avenue, to Gostlin, 
Meyn & Co.. by the Zachaw estate, for $10,000. 

A 25-foot lot on Rimbach avenue, near Hohman, to the Chicago 
Telephone Company, by A. M. Turner, for $2,750. 

Eight acres to the Simplex Railway Appliance Company, for $30,000. 

Three acres to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad, for $15,0U0. 

Residence lots in desirable portions of Hammond range from $200 up. 
Several subdivisions have been made in recent years — among the most 
important being the following, laid out by Stafford &Trankle: 

Stafford & Trankle's Addition, comprising twenty-five acres, situated 
east of Calumet avenue, west of Hickory street and south of Hoffman 
street, was platted January, 1901, into 235 lots; 215 were sold in four 
months Second Addition, five acres, north of 150th street, east of Pine 
street, west of Oak street, was platted July, 1901, into forty-seven lots ; 
forty-five were sold in thirty days. Grove Addition, twelve and one- 
half acres, east of Smith street, north of Michigan avenue, to Calumet 
river and west of Hickory street, was platted August, 1902, into 120 lots ; 
eighty were sold in sixty days. Iron Workers' Addition, ten acres, east 
of Hickory street, west of Columbia avenue, south of Hoffman street, 
was purchased December, 1903, and platted into ninety-four lots ; eighty- 
three were sold in thirty days. Fifth Addition, ten acres, east of Calumet 
avenue, west of Pine street and north of 150th street. This tract has 
just been purchased and is being platted into ninety lots. Of the 496 
lots platted in the first four subdivisions, 423 lots were sold during the 
years 1901 and 1902. These lots have been sold to the wage-earner, 
not the speculator, and a great number of cottages have been erected, 
wh.ich has added to the value of the surrounding property. 

Establishment of the Conkey Plant. — The establishment of the 
W. B. Conkey Company in 1898 greatly accelerated the growth of Ham- 
mond, and this industrial achievement was brought about by the liberal 
action of George E. Rickcords, of Chicago, who donated ten acres of land 
and sold seventy acres more at a nominal price to the Hammond Land 
& Improvement Company for the purpose of establishing the plant. 
This land was subdivided as the Franklin addition to Hammond. Mr. 
Rickcords has still sixty acres of very choice property to the south of and 




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HAMMOND'S INVITATION TO CAPITAL 



adjoining this subdivision, which will be improved and made the very 
choicest residence property in the city of Hammond. 

Forsyth Tract. — A tract of land that has not yet been subdivided, 
but which will.soon be the theater of much industry, owing-to its unrivaled 
location, is the Forsyth tract. This valuable tract consists of one thou- 
sand acres at the north end of the city of Hammond. It lies high and 
dry and constitutes one of the best sites for factory purposes in the 
Calumet region. The tract fronts on Lake Michigan, Wolf lake and 
Wdlf rivtr. Reference has been made elsewhere to the opinion expressed 
by the government engineers as to the pre-eminence of Wolf lake as an 
inland harbor. Most of the territory in the vicinity of the Forsyth tract 
is already built up. 



TO SUM UP 



At the commercial heart of the continent ; on navigable waters ; the 
point into which converge the principal traffic thoroughfares between the 
Atlantic and Pacific, between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico ; 
where the Standard Oil Company has invested more than twenty millions 
of capital in ten years to construct and operate its world-famous distillery 
for refining petroleum ; where beef, mutton and pork are cured in train- 
load consignments every day of the year ; having the largest printing 
and publishing house on the face of the globe; with electric car lines 
in operation, under construction, or contemplated, converging from Cin- 
cinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, through its streets into ChiccKjo; 
with schools, churches, banks and theaters ; the point where pine lumber 
from the north, hardwood lumber from the interior, copper ore and iron 
ore, coal from the anthracite and bituminous fields, granite, limestone, 
sandstone and marble, meet in the rough, are converted into finished 
products, and shipped to consumers at every point of the compass ; with 
an alert, enterprising and progressive class of people, whose industry is 
strenuous and tireless ; where land is valuable, but cheap, and taxes are 
low — this is the summary of Hammond, a community that never was 
boomed, but that surely is destined to become the most populous and 
important industrial city in the state of Indiana. There still is room on 
the ground floor for those fortunate ones who know a gem when they 
see it in its matrix. 

'tHOTOS by J I.. BROUSE. OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER FOR CITY OF CHICAGO] 




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J T. HUTTON. ARCHITECT CALDWELL AND DRAKE CONTRACTORS 

LAKE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT BUILDING 




INTERIOR VIEW OF CAR OF HAMMOND, WHITING & EAST CHICAGO ELECTRIC 

RAILWAY COMPANY 

Line from Hammond to Sixty-third Street 




FEW OF THE EMPLOYES OF THE UNITED STATES LOCOMOTIVE CORPORATION 
(Successors to Torbert & Peckham) 

"From labour health, from health, contentment springs." — Beattie 




TWO BIRD'S-EYE VIEWS OF HAMMOND FROM LAKE COUNTY SUPERIOR 

COURT BUILDING 



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